(Yicai Global) June 10 -- For business operators, people’s willingness to let down their guard and go out is necessary for recovery.

Small- and mid-sized businesses lack sufficient fund reserves to bear long-term costs without any income. Their survival depends on customer traffic and this closely relates to people's activity.

Sun Lian took the lead in restarting work at the Dongyiwei restaurant in the Wuhan Exhibition Center, because the Hanshang Department Store which houses it encouraged business resumption as the mall wanted to keep its traffic going. The plaza’s one-day revenue was only about CNY4,000 (USD566) to CNY5,000 for a while after the city ended lockdown, not even enough to pay for electricity, but it made rent negotiable as long as a store stayed open, Sun cited the mall’s manager as saying then.

Yin Fan and some friends discovered that the woman boss at a famous Wuhan restaurant, a model of multitasking, not only had time to chat with customers, but also packaged takeaways while doing live broadcasts, a new business marketing model born amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Diners previously needed reservations to eat there, but not now.

Wuhan, which ranks sixth on the list of China’s 10 ‘furnace’ cities, has had temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius since last month, so He Meng could no longer stand to wear the surgical N95 masks and has started doing ordinary ones instead. She also began commuting by subway, because she hopes to save money after her salary was cut. Also, the city of 11 million residents is becoming gridlocked once more.

The video game store that Jiang Chen has entertained such high hopes for has remained just as it was when it was set to open on Jan. 23. Jiang's daughter will turn four years old this year. Her favorite activity was to go to an Aeon general merchandise store nearby that targets parent-child consumption. The little girl always stopped crying at once whenever Jiang and his wife said, “Let's go to Aeon.” But when Jiang proposed a trip to the outlet one day last month, his daughter blinked and said, “Aeon also has the virus, doesn’t it?"

Instead of taking her daughter to the mall, then, Jiang went with her to the riverside where few people were about. It used to be Wuhan’s liveliest night scene.

Editor: Ben Armour